Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/460957
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2015 5 News Saviour Balzan @saviourbalzan Dishonesty is too kind a word for you, Dr Gonzi L istening to Lawrence Gonzi on Monday was sad and incredibly hard. Dishonest y is too kind a word for the position taken by the former Premier. Quizzed by the public accounts committee, he stated that his so-called familiarit y with oil trader George Farrugia's wife had no bearing on his decision to issue a Presidential pardon. He even went one step further, insisting that he did not feel the need to inform the cabinet that he knew Cathy, on that day when the Cabinet dis- cussed the pardon being suggested for Farrugia. I say Cathy, because Lawrence Gonzi called Cathy, Cathy and nothing else. For over eight years he shared the same corridor and office space with her at Mizzi House. And he knew that George Farrugia was her husband. Lawrence Gonzi also knew that the Farrugia (George's) brothers, especially George himself, supported and abetted the Nationalist Part y in so many ways. He also knew that George Farrugia made it his business to be close to some ministers and to help ministers materially. And more importantly, this help was not de- clared. Gonzi said on record that there is no proof of corruption after 2005. Well, I dispute that, and I say this because there is ample evidence to show that George Farrugia continued to act after 2005 as he had acted before then. Nothing changed, his activities, his fraud and his underhand invoicing and gifts, orchestrated and coordinated by his wife Cathy, continued until 2010. That is, until a €7 million fraud was discovered by his brothers. The opposition, with the help of The Independ- ent, have made it their business to be on the side of the former prime minister and ask why the brothers were not arraigned. They have of course insinuated that Labour's former home affairs minister, Manwel Mallia, stopped the Commissioner of Police from pro- ceeding. Indeed, the opposition's own media and The Independent should ask why the brothers were not arraigned before March 9, 2013, when the election was held which the PN lost so badly, and before when all the burlesque-like investigations were conducted. The answer is very simple – if they had been ar- raigned the Farrugia brothers would have spilled the beans about how they had supported the PN for so many years, including ministers who were directly involved in the energy policy, and the decisions taken in the Gonzi years. Indeed, the Farrugia brothers helped many, in- cluding some journalists who have today the gall to lash out at them. But Lawrence Gonzi 's most desperate comment was his narrative, which attacked MaltaToday for publishing the story before the elections, to cause most harm to the Nationalist Part y. I would like to know of one editor who has any self-respect who would not have published this material. Gonzi did not show naiveté when he said that, he displayed his true colours. To him, the world should revolve around the 'existence or rather the hegemony' of one political part y – the political part y he led. It was as if truth and the quest for transpar- ency should be overshadowed by the primary importance of safeguarding the supremacy of the Nationalist Part y and the leadership of Lawrence Gonzi. I come from a different world, a world where I put my conscience, my country and my family first. Political parties and self-righteous politi- cians come last. Dr Gonzi should be ashamed of himself. Perhaps he should wait for my book on the oil scandal to realise how widespread corruption was, and remains, in this island of ours. The future, as he would proudly announce, is in our hands. We need to take it out of the politi- cians' hands if we want this country to be a better place. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Zeidan was forced out of power in 2014, with his government the last to hold some form of control over Libya. That fragile control only worsened under the premiership of Abdullah al Thinni, who was forced to take his government into exile in the city of Tobruk after Misrata-led militias from Libya Dawn, took Tripoli. Al Thinni's government is inter- nationally recognised, but Libya Dawn's control of Tripoli is now challenged by elements of Islamic State, which are believed to have mushroomed in the city of Derna, which has long held fundamentalist elements. In a visit to London last week to meet British politicians, Zeidan urged the West to intervene in Lib- ya in an attempt to plug the power vacuum there. He expressed fears that Isis would seek to extend its caliphate from northern Iraq and Syria to Libya. "They are growing. They are eve- rywhere," Zeidan told The Times of London. As the newspaper reported: "He appeared to express concerns that the core Islamic State might be close to extending its reach to the shores of the Mediterranean. He said that Isis's homegrown Libyan faction had a growing presence in most of the main cities and was drawing in fighters from rival Islamist fac- tions." Since the death of Gaddafi in 2011, Libyan governments have been una- ble to force rebel militias to lay down their arms, and have suffered indis- criminate losses in oil revenues paid out to militias to buy the peace. Zeidan fled the country in March 2014 after being ousted by parlia- ment when he lost a confidence vote. Last week, Aref Ali Nayed, Libya's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, said that the presence of Islamic State in Libya was growing "exponentially". "I hope the international commu- nity are taking this seriously," Zei- dan said. "In Libya, the situation is still under control. If we leave it one month or two months more I don't think you can control it. It will be a big war in the country and it will be here in Europe as well." Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has also warned that Libya could become a failed state. In Germany, he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to support calls for a United Nations peacekeeping force should Libya request an intervention to support its government building process. A UN-facilitated Libyan political dialogue process has started in Ge- neva under the direction of Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Bernardino León. On Monday, the EU said it fully supported the efforts of the Special Representative and the UN Support Mission in Libya, saying that there was "no military solution to this conflict". "Only a political solution can pro- vide a sustainable way forward and contribute to peace and stability in Libya. It is critical at this stage to have an unconditional ceasefire that it is respected (and upheld by all sides." EU foreign ministers also con- demned the attack on the Greek vessel on 4 January that resulted in the loss of lives of EU citizens, and the attack against the Corin- thia hotel in Tripoli on 27 January. That attack is claimed to have been a revenge operation over the death of Al Qaeda suspect Nazih al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi, in a U.S. hospital in January. Libi, an alleged former al Qaeda operative, was snatched by the CIA in 2013 in Libya, for his alleged role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Those two bomb- ings killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands more. "Terrorism has no place in the fu- ture of a peaceful and democratic Libya," the EU ministers said. "The EU is concerned by evidence of in- creased activity of terrorist and ex- tremist groups and recognizes the potential threat that these groups present to the future stability of the country, region and the EU." "The EU remains strongly com- mitted to the sovereignty, inde- pendence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya," the foreign ministers said. In October 2014, Libyan jihadist group Majlis Shura Shabab al-Islam, or Islamic Youth Shura Council (MSSI) announced it had claimed territory in the city of Derna as part of the 'caliphate' that the Islamic State is seeking to extend over the Muslim world. MSSI said the territory control- led in Derna was now part of the caliphate, refashioning the city as Wilayat Derna, the province of Der- na within the Islamic State. MSSI began to conduct hisba (ac- countability) within Derna, essen- tially calling individuals to account for their "non-Islamic" behaviour, sometimes through vigilantism. The group also instituted hudoud, crim- inal punishments under Shari'a). mvella@mediatoday.com.mt OIL SCANDAL Zeidan on Islamic State: 'They are growing. They are everywhere' PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Former Libyan PM Ali Zeidan